The Village Part 2
|nation = earth |series = |book = |chronicle = |chapter = Chapter 2: The Village |guests = |writer = |editor = , , , |airdate = TBA |prev = |next = }} Previously on Avatar Shaken by the intense experience of fighting the jiang shi, Yalun is nonetheless eager to get to the culprit responsible for sending these foul creatures to attack him and his tribe. To this end, he has gathered his old companions to aid him in his quest for vengeance. While the tomes of the old healer were somewhat useful, there is little information concerning the summoning of jiang shi, so Team Avatar heads to the last known place where the demons walked: the sleepy Fire Nation town of Darkhollow. While combing the town for reports of spirit monsters, Team Avatar may find that this town is not what it seems... Earth Fire Air Water In a time long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. The Avatar, Yalun, had ascended to his role without beholding the fires of war. With his friends from each nation, he settled various disputes that sprang up from time to time, until the world seemed to be at rest. Now however, a new threat has risen, and Team Avatar must once again unite... Pain and echoes bounced about in Nilak's skull. Strange colors and shapes lazily drifted past the inside of his eyelids, remnants of memories and dreams long forgotten. He couldn't even properly bring his thoughts into focus; every time his mind tried to grasp something, anything, it would slip away like a greased fire ferret. Time itself seemed inconsequential. To the young waterbender, seconds or hours could be passing by, yet he cared not. Once the ringing in his head began to dull, the images before Nilak slowly began to come into focus, what little there was. The faint light of a torch flickered in the distance, illuminating black walls around the waterbender. With a groan, Nilak raised his head and tried to move his arms, only to be repaid with a metallic clang. He moved his hand around, feeling only smooth, slick steel. The waterbender’s mind slowly groaned with thought. He tried to recall the last thing he remembered, bringing his scattered focus to bear as best he could. His mind strained with the effort; the more he focused on a memory, the more it seemed to elude him. Distant thoughts and familiar sounds whizzed in his brain, distracting him and further fragmenting his thoughts. Ages seemed to pass as Nilak tried to bring his own brain to heel. Revelation and realization were balanced firmly on the tip of his tongue, just beyond the reach of his conscious mind. Slowly, ever so slowly, his last images seeped into his mind. A shadowy marketplace flashed before him… Strange villagers… Glowing eyes… Horrible noises… Excruciating pain… Suddenly the void of confusion seemed more appealing. Once more, Nilak began to slip into the shadows of his own mind. “Snap out of it!” A sharp, searing pain lanced up Nilak’s arm, immediately bringing his attention back to the material world. His entire form felt stiff to him, and his mouth scratchy and dry. Instinctively, Nilak tried to move his arm to waterbend something into his parched mouth, but once more ran into a metallic hindrance. Shackles, he thought to himself, his thoughts no longer encumbered, not the worst thing to wake up in, but not high on my list. “Ah,” said a rough, youthful voice to his right, “the little waterbender is finally awake. You owe me five silver pieces when we get out of this, Qin” “Ifth,” said a clearly impaired voice further to Nilak’s right, sounding like there was something off about its owner’s tongue, “Ifth we get outh of thith.” As Nilak slowly brought the world around him into focus, he saw where the initial sobering pain had come from - just below the shackles, still smoking from the impact, was a small burn, about the size of a small seaweed cookie. Slowly turning his head to the right, straining the muscles in his neck to the breaking point with the effort, he was able to deduce the source, hanging a few meters away in his own set of shackles, mouth still smoking from his attempt to wake Nilak. Qin was never any good at breathing fire, despite his amazing prowess with firebending. Li Chen sat closer to the young waterbender, smirking despite a few bruises and scrapes across his shirtless torso. His limbs seemed to be almost completely encased in metal confines, seemingly not leaving much room for movement. Great, thought Nilak, Something else to heal later. Provided there is a later. The high pitched creaking of a rusty hinge seemed to answer Nilak’s thoughts. Far out, beyond the soft, flickering light of the lone torch, a thin ray of light meandered out from a barely opened door. Nilak’s vision was still blurry, but he knew a door when he saw one. They had been slammed in his face several times, though he doubted a pretty girl was behind this one. Out beyond the limits of Nilak’s vision, dull lumps of shadow slid through the narrow crack in the doorway, their silhouettes scarcely outlined by the torch’s illumination. As they passed under the torch, Nilak was able to make out some vague features of: both seemed to be clad in dark robes, one was taller and lithe, while the other was a more average height with a stocky build. As they neared the bars of the cell, Nilak still could not get a good read on the two, but one thing he could discern gave him a measure of ease: they were both human. “Oh good”, Nilak said to himself, “the whole sucking our chi out seems to have been postponed. So what’s the activity for today? pai sho? 20 questions?” His throat felt raspy and devoid of moisture, preventing his voice from sounding anything other than sandpaper on wood. The shorter of the two figures stirred a bit under his robes, brought his right hand up from beneath the dark cloth, and with a flick of his hand produced a small fire square in his palm. Now that the two were well lit and close, Nilak got a good look at their faces, at least when the blurriness of his own vision seemed to pass momentarily. The firebender looked fairly young, maybe in his mid-twenties by the young waterbender’s judgment, with sun-darkened skin and a strong, square jaw. His off-black hair was pulled back in a practical ponytail as beady eyes stared at Nilak from behind the flame in his palm. Had he not been wearing insidious looking black robes, the waterbender would have guessed that he was a farmhand or stableboy. The taller of the two men was considerably less homey looking. No hair to speak of, the man’s ruddy, pale skin seemed stretched across his scalp, whereas everywhere else it seemed to hang loose in folds that resembled a swarm of white grubs clinging to his head and neck. Under a brow that was far too furry for an otherwise hairless head glared two cold, analyzing eyes, blue as the ice of the poles. The old-timer’s robes seemed slightly more intricate, its borders hemmed with strange runes, the same color as fresh bruises. With such a comically mismatched pair before him, Nilak almost forgot he was in a dungeon cell chained to the wall and scared for his life. Barely moving his thin, cracked lips, the older of the two was the first to speak, his voice disturbingly low for one so frail looking, “Were you so useless as to be food for our sacred allies, young waterbender, you would not be talking. Much to my own dismay, I admit.” Moving with grace that seemed out of place on an older body, the old man produced a small unlit torch and flicked it towards the young firebender, who immediately tipped his flame towards the torch, setting it alight. Once the torch blazed with a healthy flame, the old man brought it closer to the cell, slowly moving it across the full length of the cramped chamber. “It seems the rest of our guests are awake as well, excellent. Ah,” the man stopped moving his torch as it pointed just to Nilak’s left, “they gagged the airbender too, very good.” Nilak turned his aching neck to his left, somewhat easier than the last time he turned it, and beheld Assam, chained up as the rest of them and gagged with a yellow-white cloth. His storm-cloud eyes stared daggers at the two robed men beyond the bars. “His petty little air blasts were getting annoying,” said the firebender, “Yorza still has bruises, and Rezak cracked two ribs when he tried to give the ungrateful ponce water.” Nilak squinted a bit as he tried to look past Assam at the rest of the cell, but no one else was on his left. Then he turned his head as quickly as he was able to the right side. Qin and Li sat a few meters away, tattered and filthy. A chill crept up Nilak’s spine. “Where’s the Avatar?” he croaked, his throat still dry and sore like the rest of him. Any pretense of humor or sarcasm would have gone right out the window if there had been one available. The two robed men turned away from the cell without a word and started down the dark hallway. Rage beyond measure filled the young waterbender, bringing his voice up from sandpaper on wood to something close to his normal voice. “''Where’s Yalun you peanut munching sons of hog monkeys!” he screamed, straining against his chains as best he could. Nilak would not be ignored, not by these dress wearing pansies and not when his best friend’s life was in question. “''Answer me!” he screamed again, further pulling on his confines. He felt a small, warm trickle down his non-burned arm as the edges of the cuffs cut into his skin. Nilak didn’t care. Just before the two robed men reached the door on the far side of the hallway, the old man’s voice reverberated through the room. “Worry not, waterbender. You will be joining him shortly.” The two reached the door and slid through the crack, just as they had done before, closing it behind them. The room was once again filled with shadow save the dim light of the torch on the wall. Nilak slid back to the ground and leaned his back against the stone wall, letting out a small gasp of exhaustion as his protesting muscles gave him the clear signal that they should not be moving. Sharp needles of anxiety slowly worked their way to his stomach as his mind began racing, desperately trying to think of ways to escape and save the Avatar. Yalun, thought Nilak, wherever you are, please don’t be dead.